Local structure of abelian covers (Q855710)

From the introduction: Let \(G\) be a finite abelian group and let \(X,Y\) be algebraic varieties. An abelian cover \(X\) of \(Y\), with group \(G\) is a (finite) morphism \(\pi:X\to Y\), together with a faithful action of \(G\) on \(X\), commuting with \(\pi\), such that \(Y=X/G\). We will focus our attention on the case in which \(X\) is normal and \(Y\) is smooth. The theory of cyclic covers of algebraic surfaces was studied first by A. Comessatti. Then F. Catanese studied smooth abelian covers in the case \((\mathbb{Z}_2)^2\) and R. Pardini analyzed the general case. M. Manetti investigated the property to be Gorenstein for \((\mathbb{Z}_2)^n\)-covers. Recently, R. Vakil used the \((\mathbb{Z}_p)^n\)-covers to show the existence of badly-behaved deformation spaces. The first purpose of this paper is to establish combinatorial conditions so that a normal \(G\)-cover \(X\) of a smooth variety \(Y(\pi:X\to Y)\) is Gorenstein. Theorem. Let \(X\) be a normal \(G\)-cover of a smooth variety \(Y\) and \(\{(H_i, \psi_i)]_{i=1,\dots,s}\) its combinatorial data at the point \(y\) in \(Y\). Then the points of \(X\) over \(y\) are Gorenstein points of \(X\) if and only if there exists a character \(\chi\) of \(G\) such that \[ \chi|_{H_i}=\psi_i,\quad\forall 1\leq i \leq s. \] The second purpose of this paper is to prove the following Theorem. Let \(\pi:X\to Y\) be a normal flat \((\mathbb{Z}_p)^n\)-cover with \(Y\) smooth and \(p\) prime. Then the following conditions are equivalent: (i) \(\pi\) is locally simple; (ii) \(X\) is locally complete intersection. This theorem improves a result due to \textit{M. Manetti} [Invent. Math. 143, 29--76 (2001; Zbl 1060.14520)].